


Martyr

by Nocturnalist (CaptainJack)



Category: X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, major feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2016-07-01
Packaged: 2018-07-19 09:02:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7354555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainJack/pseuds/Nocturnalist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An exploration of Cherik. Don't want to say much more cause it would spoil the whole thing. Almost a character study. Might write more than one chapter, but the original idea is a one-shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Martyr

It was a wooden stake fired from a wooden cross-bow. It had been meant for Erik, but he had dodged. He had told Charles to stay in the car, but Charles had refused and Moira had enabled him. Erik erected a wall of metal to shield him while he ran to Charles' side. The stake hadn't actually stabbed Charles, but it had done a good job of conveying the impact of the cross-bow to Charles' head. Erik looked for a pulse. He didn't find one. 

"No, no, no, no, no, No, No, NO, NO, NO! NO! NO!! No, can't be dead. Mien Gotte NIEN! I'm cursed. I have to be. Dead. They're all dead. The last one left. He was the only one left. No, no no," Erik cried cradling Charles to his chest, "Should have stayed in the car. Told him to stay in the car. Idiot wouldn't listen. Didn't listen. Helped him. Enabled him. You enabled him. YOU HELPED KILL HIM!" He shouted that last at Moira. 

"Forgive me old friend, I must avenge you now. I know it's not what you would want, but I can't forgive them for this. If my mother, wife, and daughter were unforgivable than you were an act of war. I'm sorry old friend, I really am," Erik said preparing to stand. 

"Erik," Charles breathed. 

"Charles!" Erik cried clutching the other man closer to his chest as he sobbed. 

"Erik, I'm going to be alright, but I have an idea," Charles said weakly. Erik nodded, the idea Charles showed him telepathically actually had a good chance of working. He would try it. 

 

The sound that escaped the mutant known as Magneto was filled with unimaginable, soul-crushing, heart-rending loss. It was accompanied by an explosion of metal in a sphere around the mutant. Then he stood holding the broken body of Professor Charles Xavier. The mutant levitated down the hill towards the humans and camera crew. The humans shook with fear, but the mutant floated up to the camera crew and made a speech. 

"The human race has made a dire mistake today. You have killed the one man who thought we could cohabitate on this little planet. And you have killed the last person who ever mattered to me. I should kill you for this. I should destroy the world for this, but it's not what he would have wanted. He would be unspeakably angry if I used his death to destroy everything he worked for. He was a naive fool to think that we could live in peace, but if it's possible I owe it to him to try. So let the great Charles Xavier be a martyr for his cause. Let us find a way to live in peace because it is what he wanted, because he could have forced the world to live in peace but didn't because he believed that we could find a healthier peace from diplomacy. So if you don't know who Professor Charles Xavier was ask the thousands and thousands of mutants and humans alike whom he saved. Ask the X-Men who he taught how to save thousands more. And then don't be afraid to be yourself because if someone tells you that you're wrong because you're different you just tell them  that Charles Xavier was a mutant who saved the world from itself and they should be glad that he lived and died to save you from your own innate cruelty," Erik said all this with tears streaming down his face, "His funeral will be in one week at the school, at that time we will all mourn the passing of the greatest man the world has ever seen." After he finished Erik floated to the top of the hill where he used his power to forge a coffin of metal which he levitated away.

 

The X-Men waited at the dock for Erik to disembark with Charles' casket. Suddenly they heard Charles voice in their heads, _"You are going to have to put on the show of your lives. I have faked my death so that Erik can use me as a martyr. Erik knows and I intend to tell the children, but I will have to disappear while Erik hammers out some law with congress and the UN. So you must act as if I am dead. I intend to have an open casket funeral and to have it televised. That's what Erik meant by we will all mourn him together. Your performance starts now."_ Just as Charles finished Erik emerged from the ship with the casket floating in front of him. The X-Men broke down with grief. The reporters filmed it all, but they kept a respectful distance as they told their viewers in hushed voices that the mutant hero was home and his children had come to take him to his final resting place. A few of them were given letters saying to be in a certain place at a certain time the following week and that they would be blindfolded and driven in the back of a windowless van to the school in order to protect the children until there were laws in place to protect the school without secrecy. Nightcrawler went on ahead to gather the children and teachers who had not been on the dock. 

Erik levitated the casket into the entry way which was lined with mutants. He set down the casket and closed and locked the door. Then he spoke.

"From this point on you must be the best actors on the planet or all of this was for nothing. You must pretend that you believe your beloved Professor is dead," Erick said as he removed the lid from the casket. The assembled mutants gasped with shock and joy as Xavier sat up in his casket and smiled at them. 

"One day we will reveal that I'm alive, but until then let me be a martyr. I will still teach classes, but it will all be in the basement classrooms. It may be years and we likely won't announce it, but eventually I should be able to stop hiding. On that day we will know that we have achieved true peace at last," Charles said. The other mutants nodded. 

"Professor?" Bobby asked, "Can we hug you?" 

"Yes, of course," Charles said smiling, "Just don't push and wait your turn." 


End file.
